2021, PRODUCT DESIGN, UX/UI DESIGN
Increasing social engagement in care homes
This group project was done as part of the Bachelor Industrial Design Engineering to design a product-service system that offers a product with a service in the form of a subscription.
At the start of the project, we came up with the idea of creating a smart community garden. It would use some technology that monitors your plants and gives you notifications on your phone. Our company would have provided all the necessary tools and consumables to maintain a proper garden. The advantage of our community garden was that you could choose the amount of work you wanted to put in. We slowly transitioned into a community garden with more benefits, we talked about focusing on elderly people and children and the interaction between them. The gardens wouldn’t be privately leased, but care homes would contact us to get a quote for a garden.
Research
Market research was conducted to learn about the feasibility of the product-service system. Furthermore, research was conducted about designing for older adults. There are several requirements and guidelines to follow when designing for an older age group. Older adults require more thorough research when it comes to ergonomics since their bodies are at more risk for injuries due to unergonomic positions. Since we want our service to be used in care homes, the application we developed should also be optimized for older adults and people with disabilities.
Design Process
We started to ideate. We were sure about making a modular system. This would allow elderly homes to pick and choose modules based on the people living there and the amount of space they have available for the garden. Having discussed our ideation we decided to select the square modules with rounded edges, because of their safe and modern looks. The square modules offered the most customization of possible layouts. Next, we talked about different sizes, heights and modules.
After the drawn modules we modeled the garden in SolidWorks and rendered them out. We ended with a garden optimized for elderly people, where our service would provide the care home with all the necessary materials to properly take care of the garden. There are moisture sensors which give you another point of reference to take care of your plants. The moisture sensors send their information over to the app. The app can help elderly people remember what plants they planted where, and they can check the water levels to make sure their plants are healthy.
Responses from care homes
To ensure care homes were enthusiastic about our ideas, we reached out to approximately 25 care homes to ask what they thought of our ideas and whether they would be interested in implementing such a service into their care home. While most care homes did not reply to our email, we were happy to find that the care home that did reply liked our ideas.
Three care homes mentioned they already have kitchen garden tables. Together with the enthusiastic responses of the care homes without the tables, we can state that many care homes will be interested in our service. However, we have to keep a close eye on the competition and we have to make sure we offer a unique service which will keep the care homes from investing in kitchen gardens themselves.
Personal contributions to this project
During this project, I was responsible for keeping the team on track as a secretary. I came up with the idea to make the product-service system directed at older adults in care homes to give us the opportunity to learn about designing for this specific user group. Next to that, I was responsible for designing the application, which I did in Figma. During this project, I learned a lot about designing interfaces for older adults. I also learned how to begin a startup company, as this project was a way of introducing us to starting a business.
Personal contributions to this project
During this project, I was responsible for keeping the team on track as a secretary. I came up with the idea to make the product-service system directed at older adults in care homes to give us the opportunity to learn about designing for this specific user group. Next to that, I was responsible for designing the application, which I did in Figma. During this project, I learned a lot about designing interfaces for older adults. I also learned how to begin a startup company, as this project was a way of introducing us to starting a business.